Hit film  car to
visit roots at
stately home

A SPECTACULAR event will see the
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car used in
the hit film brought back to the stat-
ely home where its forebears were
built. ,
The open days at Bridge’s Higham Park
on August 8 and 4 will not only celebrate
the part Canterbury played in the tale,
but lay bare the mysteries of the house in
which truth is stranger than fiction.
Many are not aware James Bond cre-
ator Ian Fleming spent much of his
youth at the elegant estate and went on
to write Chitty Chitty Bang Bang for his
young son, based on his memories of
Higham Park. 1 A
The true story behind the 1968 MGM
classic film begins when the mansion
was bought in 1910 by an American mem-
ber of the Astor family for her son, Count
Louis Zborowski, whose father was a
Polish count. '
She died within three months of the
purchase, leaving her son £11 million in
England as well as much of Broadway, a
lump of land in lower New York, 5th-
Avenue and nearly all of Wall Street in
her American will.  
Racing fanatic
The young Count Louis was based at
Higham Park and attended the King’s
School. .Can.terbury. then. Eton. He fol-_
lowed in his father’s footsteps to become
a motor racing fanatic and was dedicated
to designing cars.
He built more than 90 at Higham Park,
having bought the Bligh Brothers garage
in St Radigund’s, to supply the body-
work.
It was also at Higham Park with his
engineer, Capt Clive Gallop, that he built
several aero-engined cars all called
Chitty Bang Bang.
The first had a Mercedes chassis and a
28-litre six-cylinder Maybach Zeppelin
engine. It created ripples in the motor
racing world of 1921. e
The Count was a colourful character
with a great sense of humour, and on
Chitty 1’s first race day he entered the car
under the name of a laxative in popular
use at the time.
The English competition organisers
said it would be far too brash to race
home  
     bwobs   
under the name of a laxative, and so the
count came up with the slightly less obvi-
ous Chitty Bang Bang - lyrics of a bawdy
First World War song.
The car and its successors, Chitty 2 and
Chitty 3, had a lot of racing success, as
did Count Louis, who worked with Aston
Martin and Mercedes. .
It was while driving for Mercedes in
1924 that he was killed when he crashed
into a tree during the Italian Grand Prix
at Monza, aged under 30. .
The Count’s widow sold Higham Park
to banker Walter Wigham, a senior part-
ner in the Robert Fleming bank.
A relative of Walter, Ian Fleming’s
mother died when Ian was young and he
stayed at Higham Park in the 1930s. Some
of Count Louis’ mechanics were still
there, and stories of the eccentric would
fascinate the young Fleming.
Later he was to buy a property immedi-
ately behind Higham Park, and wrote the
story of Chitty for his son, based on the
stories he had heard as a youngster. The
film rights were later bought and the
musical starring Dick Van Dyke was
born.
Now Higham Park’s current owner,
Amanda Harris-Dean, who has been
restoring the house since she bought it in
a state. of disrpepairluzith her- sister and
nephew in 1995, plans to breathe new life
into the history of the house with a visit
from Chitty itself.
A  Event sponsors
The car’s owner, Pierre Picton, will visit
with Chitty, which he drove in the film
sequences. ~ 
Ms Harris-Deans said: “The real story of
Higham Park is incredible, never mind
the fairytale. ,   a
“We would like to make a big event of
the car’s visit, and are looking for local
businesses to come forward to sponsor
the event.
“There are a lot of costs involved and
all the money raised will go into the fur-
ther-restoration of the house, which is
. open to the public.” . t
For details of sponsoring the event and
for details of Higham Park opening times
ring 01227 830830.
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